Eugene | featured news

History took a boot to the back door recently when vandals broke into the oldest standing building in Lane County. The building, which housed the original Lane County clerk’s office, was damaged sometime in the last couple of days.

OLYMPIA, Wash. — Flu activity has picked up across Washington, especially in Western Washington, the state Health Department said Thursday. A Pierce County boy and two older adults in King County were the first influenza deaths in the state this season, the department said.

A judge has sentenced a Eugene woman to more than a year in prison for driving drunk and causing a pair of accidents last year. Kelli Lee Fields, 43, was ordered to serve 15 months in connection with the March 11, 2011, collisions.

The first phase of a major west Eugene redevelopment project may get under way as soon as this summer, said one of the owners of the property, the longtime site of the Rexius Forest By-Products operations.

The effects of climate change may be ravaging the earth. The Amazon jungle and the African rain forest may be succumbing to the chainsaw. But if you want a sign of hope, look no further than the lands alongside Fern Ridge Lake west of Eugene.

PORTLAND — An autopsy showed that the suspicious death of a 33-year-old woman at her southwest Portland apartment was a homicide. Detectives are checking with friends and tracing the activities of Jaime Lyn Larson in previous days in hope of finding her killer. Her body was found Christmas night.

UMATILLA — District Attorney Dan Primus says a man found dead Sunday along Highway 730 east of Umatilla was shot to death. The East Oregonian reports authorities are investigating the killing of 32-year-old Luis Jaime Diaz of Umatilla.

PORTLAND, Ore. — The Oregon Department of Transportation has a plan to ease flooding on Highway 101 near Seaside and help the environment. The plan calls for removing a levee to create a wetland of more than 100 acres.

NAMPA, Idaho — The Idaho Department of Labor says the state ranks last in overall earnings by full- and part-time job holders. The median annual wage in Idaho is $23,192.

GRANTS PASS — An Oregon man convicted of trying to hire a hit man to kill a former business partner and of stealing mummified remains and artifacts from Indian graves in Nevada has died in prison.